Strip-till vs. planter attachments

Many corn growers question their tillage and planting
systems from time to time. Bishop Mumford, Griffin, Indiana, is one such
grower. Mumford has no-tilled most of his corn for the past 15 years. For
several years, he used nothing but coulters and residue wheels. Now, however,
he has several attachments on his planter.

Although Mumford likes his current setup, he wonders if his
soil would warm up and dry out more quickly with fall strip-till. That's why he
posted the question at the top of the page in a talk group at Agriculture
Online(tm), where it sparked a discussion among other growers. We've included
some of their comments, along with comments from other growers, in this story
comparing fall strip-till to using attachments on the planter to clear a strip
in which to plant.

There are many approaches to strip-till. One of the most
common involves using a smooth coulter, anhydrous ammonia shank with a mole
knife, and oversize closing disks to place anhydrous ammonia and/or phosphate
and potassium 6 to 8 inches deep. This setup builds a mound to plant into the
following spring.

Likewise, there are a lot of different types of planter
attachments to clear residue and lightly till a strip of soil to plant into.
Residue wheels are almost standard equipment on many no-till planters. They're
often run in combination with no-till coulters.

More recently, no-tillers who frequently plant into wet soil
have added spiked closing wheels in an attempt to eliminate sidewall smearing
in the furrow and compaction over the row.

"But I saw soil erosion where I ran the field
cultivator," he says. "Ever since I was a little boy it's upset me to
see soil washing away. I thought there had to be a better solution."

For Dunahee, the solution was fall strip-till, which he
adopted nine years ago. "It's not without problems, but basically it works
well," he says. "It looks like it is yielding right with conventional
tillage. And the thing most people around here like is it plants nicely. The
soil is loose and mellow. Generally, you don’t end up with clods or smeary
soil."

Two years ago, he bought the strip-till rig shown above and
started doing custom work through the Melvin FS plant in addition to his own
fields. According to plant manager Mike Moody, FS charges $7.50 for
strip-tillage without fertilizer, $11 for strip-tillage with either dry
fertilizer or anhydrous ammonia, $13 for strip-tillage with both forms of
fertilizer.